INTRODUCTION to Blog Posting # 357. Never before have you, as MHIndustry businessmen & women been offered an opportunity to ‘name’ our next decade! Here it is! AND, do you have any idea ‘What’s really going on in & around you’, politically, in the MHIndustry? Well, there’s an OPEN LETTER, even a formal treatise, being prepared for your reading education & enjoyment. And finally; There are at least eight (just learned of a ninth – but too late to detail here) activities going on in & near the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN., throughout the day and evening of 3 August 2015. Already more than 500 RV & MH industry notables, pioneers, & dignitaries are registered! Are YOU?

I.

Help Name Next Decade of Manufactured Housing!

‘Here’s a rare & unique opportunity for YOU to affect MHIndustry Marketing for the Next Ten Years, & Label MHIndustry History!’

To begin with, those of us who’ve been active in the manufactured housing industry and land-lease-lifestyle community asset class for decades, know we label our decades differently. How so? We measure and label ten year segments of history beginning and ending mid-decade, e.g. 1995 – 2005; 2005 – 2015; & now, 2015 – 2025, the decade we’ll to label, with your assistance, during the weeks ahead!

That first decade, occurring between 1995 & 2005 was labeled The Decade of Manufactured Housing and the Manufactured Home Community. Was it apropos? You bet! By the end of year 1998, HUD-Code manufactured housing industry ‘new home shipments’ crested at 372,843 units, heralding the too short-lived renascence of the time. It was during that period of time, Land & Home Packages (Think ‘Big Boxes = Big Bucks!’) ‘became the rage’, as independent (street) MHRetailers oft became contractors, competing head to head with site-builders for new home sales. On the (then) MHCommunity side of the MHIndustry, when national average physical occupancy hit 95 percent (highest in the 50 years history of the asset class) during the mid-1990s, dozens, if not hundreds of new communities were developed and existing properties expanded. And don’t forget, it was in 1994 & 1995, we saw several property portfolio firms launch IPOs and become real estate investment trusts. But then, by 2005, the chattel capital lending bubble had burst, and the industry/asset class has not fully recovered to this day (2015).

The second such-labeled decade occurred between 2005 and 2015. It’s moniker? The Decade of Factory-built Housing and the Land-lease-lifestyle Community. Certainly not the ‘Rah Rah’ times of the previous decade, but one with its’ distinctions nonetheless. On the MHIndustry side of the house, so to speak – and no pun intended, there was short-lived renewed interest in fabricating modular homes (like manufactured homes, one more type of factory-built housing – oft referred to as being ‘hudulars’), and in year 2009, the Community Series Homes, or CSH Model homes, concept was birthed. These being singlesection and modest-sized multisection homes, with one or more WOW factors, and a plethora of durability-enhancing features to speed ‘make ready’ between owners and renters of these new homes sited on-site in LLLCommunities. And this income-producing property type? For a relatively short time, until 2007, ‘park closures’ caught everyone’s attention. But the conventional housing finance bubble bursting that year brought a near end to much speculative (re)development. Today, among owners/operators, a major interest is in the ongoing consolidation of sole proprietor-owned properties into one or another of the 500+/- known LLLCommunity portfolios in North America.

Now, during the closing days of year 2015, we’re in need of a new moniker, one to highlight where we are today, and anticipate what’s might occur during the next 10 years, between 2015 and 2025. So, what do you think might be the best way to describe/predict the present and near future of HUD-Code manufactured housing and the LLLCommunity realty asset class? We really would like to know, and will value your input…

Furthermore, MHIndustry veterans recall, when both previous labeled decades began, GFA Management, Inc., dba PMN Publishing circulated 1 ½ inch diameter, solid Sterling Silver, Executive Decision Maker coins, during that year’s (1995 & 2005) International Networking Roundtable. The reverse side of each coin featured the years spread and moniker of that particular decade. Many continue to carry that rare and valuable coin on our person, others have it on display in their office. Retail value used to be $50.00 apiece! Today? All but priceless, given the escalating cost of Sterling Silver. However, ‘all is not lost’. While we may, or may not, have a ‘2015-2025 Decade’ moniker selected by 9-11 September, when the 24th Networking Roundtable begins; COBA7® has ‘something akin in the works’ for distribution to everyone in attendance that first day! Care to guess what it is? Just one more, of many reasons to be present this year! Use brochure attached to this blog posting to register today!

II.

Here’s What We’re Working on Now, for YOU

An Open Letter to LLLCommunity Owners/operators Nationwide

If you think business is difficult now, operating under far less than favorable auspices of the S.A.F.E. Act, financial regulations resulting from Dodd-Frank Legislation,

&

Now, imminent enforcement of year 2007 Federal Installation Standards, even implementation of Dispute Resolution nationwide – if HUD can find any complaints.

Look What Else is Coming Your Way!

Possible marginalization of ‘Duty to Serve’ Legislation and more….

Oh Yes, and about another matter: ‘Why does MHI continue to ‘go it alone’, when reporting monthly ‘new home shipment totals’ at odds with everyone else, i.e. IBTS, MHARR, & COBA7®?’ The reason might surprise you; then, it might not…

By now most of you realize, to stay atop ‘What’s really going on inside the Washington, DC., beltway, affecting those (of us) outside the beltway and beyond’, you’ve gotta be reading this blog posting weekly, and the Allen Letter professional journal monthly! To subscribe, affiliate with COBA7® @ $134.95/year for 12 issues. Simply phone the Official MHIndustry HOTLINE: (877) MFD-HSNG or 633-4764.

III.

3 August 2015 in Elkhart, IN.

A Bunch of Good Reasons to be at or near the RV/MH Heritage Foundation’s Hall of Fame, Library, & Museum Facility, Elkhart, Indiana, all day & evening, 3 August 2015.

For more information about official RV/MH Hall of Fame functions on 3 August, telephone (800) 378-8694. More than 500 guests are expected for the banquet that evening. This is one gala RV/MH networking event you do not want to miss!